KARACHI: Stocks remained volatile throughout the session on Wednesday as investors were caught between the greed to buy and make up for some of the heavy losses suffered a day earlier and the fear of another local market slide, in line with the sell-off seen in global developed and emerging bourses.

Consequently, the KSE-100 index crawled up by 37.06 points (0.09 per cent) that carried it above the 42,000 level to settle at 42,022.25. The benchmark opened in the red and spiralled downwards until it hit the intraday low by 374 points.

The bulls gathered energy and entered to drive out the bears in much of the second half with the index managing to recover the lost ground and rise up to intraday high by 211 points. But subsequent bouts of buying and selling saw the benchmark finish just about flat.

Foreign investors sold shares worth $1.31 million, while companies and insurance also disposed of equity. Individuals were again the lead buyers of shares worth $3.47m. The volume declined 20pc over the previous day to 707m shares while traded value also decreased by 24pc to $128m. Stocks that contributed significantly included Hascol Petroleum, PTCL, Pakistan International Bulk Terminal, Worldcall and TRG, which formed 38pc of total turnover.

Among sectors, exploration and production, oil marketing companies and cement remained under pressure throughout the session. OGDC and PPL also observed selling activity on the back of significant decline in crude prices. Refinery gained where all four scrips National, Attock, Pakistan and Byco closed in the green.

Oil marketing companies were hammered down and so were cements. Overall, the index received support from Habib Bank, National Foods, Lucky, TRG, Jubilee Life and National Refinery. It was however dragged down by OGDC, Hubco, United Bank, Pakistan Petroleum, Pakistan State Oil, Mari Petroleum, Maple Leaf and Cherat Cement.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2020